


Excuses

by mneiai



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Affairs, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 08:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mneiai/pseuds/mneiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't something they planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excuses

**Author's Note:**

> Written for tumblr user astarinsomebodyelsessky for ouatsecretsantas.

It wasn’t something they planned. On the run as they were, they didn’t have time to plan much, not with Snow slipping away from them and George’s soldiers at their backs.

One night had been cold, too cold, and they had huddled together under their cloaks, even their heads tucked under the material to trap in as much heat as possible. They’d talked, then, scared if they slept they’d have no warning if the temperature dropped again. It was Ruby who suggested it, face turned away from him as she muttered the words. He’d found that odd, until he realized that even in the near dark, she might be able to see him.

But this way, it was excusable. They needed to keep their body temperature up and what better way to generate heat? And as much as David wanted to say no, he knew that it made sense. He could think of it as a type of sacrifice, because he would rather live to save Snow, even if it meant betraying her, even if it meant she would hate him once she remembered him.

There was no excuse the next time. It was almost a week later, after after the heat of battle,and the two of them had taken out almost a dozen soldiers in a surprise attack. It was so hard for people to sneak up on Red, sometimes he wondered why they tried. He’d touched her first, to rub a smear of blood from her chin, but they’d both moved into the kiss, lips fierce, hands wandering.

He was in love with her best friend, but Snow didn’t even know that at the moment, and he didn’t know what that meant.

He’d felt bad in the morning, but it was easy to push that feeling away with so much else going on in their lives. And when they’d gone their separate ways, he thought it was over, that the two times would be all they ever had.

Then there was a war, ruling a kingdom, the pregnancy, the Curse. There was his brave, wonderful stranger of a daughter saving them all, and being sucked into a portal with Snow, but without him.

Red, who was still so often Ruby to so many of them, had mourned along with him. They’d sat on the floor in an empty room at the bed and breakfast, going over the memories they had. She’d known Emma so much more than David, she had so much to teach him. And she’d missed so much of David Nolan and Mary Margaret’s affair that almost everything he had to say was news to her.

"Everyone thinks David Nolan was nothing like me," he whispered, pressing his forehead to her shoulder. "But he was. His weakness was mine."

"The Curse didn’t make us anything we weren’t. That was the worst part of it." He wanted to tell her she was a good person, that even under the Curse she’d been so much better than him, but at the moment he knew she wouldn’t believe him.

He looked up, meeting her eyes, seeing that old despair, the longing for a life she could never have back. He knew that feeling so well.

A shaky smile was all the warning he gave before he kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed. Their hands scrabbled over their clothing, stripping off piece by piece. It had been decades, but they remembered all the secrets they’d discovered wrapped in cloaks hiding from soldiers and the winter.

Her skin was smooth and warm against his, her hands and mouth skilled in a way they’d never been in their world. They were both rough. This wasn’t about love, this wasn’t Charming and Snow on their fluffy bed in a castle, it was David the would-be king and Red the werewolf, trying to sweat out their sorrow on the scratchy sheets in an anonymous room.

They lost track of time, everything falling away except their bodies, their pleasure and pain. When it was over, he stared at the cracked ceiling, Red pressed to his side.

"We can’t keep doing this," she whispered into his skin, the slow movement of her lips, the brush of her breath against his too-sensitive skin making him shiver. "It’s not fair to any of us."

"We can’t," he agreed. He wouldn’t. This time he would be stronger, he would shed his weakness along with David Nolan’s false life and move forward.

Emma and Snow came back and the town threw a party. Snow sat on his lap in the diner, playfully feeding him between sweet kisses, and he didn’t look at Red.


End file.
